Talk:Sting

I added a note that Sting glows in the vicinity of giant spiders. In the Hobbit, the spiders were able to track Bilbo while he wore the Ring, because they could still see the light shed by Sting. Sting also glowed when [Frodo] and Sam faced Shelob in her cave, and when Sam later fought Shelob in the pass.

Sting also cut through Shelob's webs and the webs of the spiders of Mirkwood without difficulty, while Sam's blade from the Barrow Downs (made in Arnor for use against Angmar) wouldn't cut Shelob's webs.

I disagree with the claim that Sting would glow in the vicinity of spiders. In the Hobbit, the spiders track Bilbo while he is invisible primarily because of his singing and rock throwing. There is a line that says, "the spiders saw the sword, although I don't suppose they knew what it was", however it's not clear from this description that the reason they saw the sword was because of glowing. In Shelob's lair, the glow is most likely the result of the presence of the Orcs in the Tower of Cirith Ungol. If there is consensus that I am incorrect in my interpretation, or if there is a clear reference to glowing in the presence of spiders, then certainly we should change the text back.

Maegnas

What is the origin of the name Maegnas? I was not aware that Sting had any name before Bilbo gave it one; there was no mention of runes on the blade when Thorin and Company had Elrond read the runes on Glamdring and Orcrist during their stopover in Rivendell. It seems a tad convenient that runes on the blade (that no one noticed in The Hobbit) just happen to have almost the same meaning as the name Bilbo gave the blade. --Ted C 13:20, 21 November 2006 (EST)

My best guess is, that this came out of one of those money-sucking producs accompanying PJ's "adaptation" of the LotR. --Earendilyon 13:36, 21 November 2006 (EST)

My problem is not with the translation; is there any legitimate source for the name, or was it made up to help peddle merchandise like "Sting" replicas? As I said, there was no mention of runes on this dagger in The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, so where is this Elvish name coming from? It seems to me that the authenticity of the whole first paragraph is dubious. --Ted C 09:53, 22 November 2006 (EST)

It was in the original draft of the article by Hyarion (which was large), so I'm guessing it was originally copy-pasted from Wikipedia (which seems to have a tendancy towards movie-fan editors). I'll give it twenty-four hours, but if there is no evidence found by then (I don't have the HoME at the moment, so someone else would need to do that) I'll delete the statements. --Narfil Palùrfalas 13:33, 22 November 2006 (EST)

I looked at the Wikipedia article. It states that this is movie fanon. I'll move it to that. --Narfil Palùrfalas 13:35, 22 November 2006 (EST)